A report from OCLC Online Computer Library Center says libraries need a makeover. The report, "Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources" (all 200-plus pages of which are available for download), indicates that library patrons see libraries as a resource for books but not necessarily other media; that 50 to 60 percent of patrons are satisfied with libraries’ various services; and that libraries could do better in marketing their services to the public.
Teenage and college-age respondents from the United States were generally neutral about whether their libraries were making information freely available and promoting literacy. And while 94 percent of American respondents over 65 saw the library as a "place to learn," only 69 percent of teenagers shared that perception.
Talking With Talis, a Web site that features conversations with luminaries in information science, includes an interview about the report with George Needham, vice president for member services at OCLC. He also talks about other issues, including the popularity of library Web sites, library blogging, Google, and library staffing.
4 Responses to Library Satisfaction
proftowanda - January 3, 2012 at 7:00 pm
As the daughter of another late, great rewrite man: Thank you.
By the way, he always said that there were only four great rewrite men in the history of humankind. They were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
ebner22 - January 4, 2012 at 7:57 am
What a superb essay. Not that I am surprised, since I have long enjoyed Ben Yagoda’s writing, none more so than his fine book about The New Yorker.
I think of my grandfather as an industrious newspaper man. Arriving from Russia in 1905 as a boy, his entire life was devoted to selling — even peddling – newspapers retail in and around Newark, NJ
He imparted in his daughter, my late mother, and her offsprings, myself and my brother, a keen appreciation for reading the daily press. Growing up in the 1950s, my grandfather brought home several papers each day. My brother and I became avid readers.
When my mother was alive she couldn’t comprehend what I had not read the NY Times cover to cover by 9 AM. My brother and I — and now my my wife of some 46 years — continue to discuss, and savor, the Times in rather minute detail.
BTW, if you are an intrepid traveler who exits from the beaten bi-coastal paths, you will be pleased to discover than the NY Times is frequently available at Starbucks. We’ve been delighted in Twinsburg, OH, Valdosta, GA, and Norman, OK.
jshear - January 5, 2012 at 2:25 pm
In 1980, the editor of the New York Times New Jersey Weekly Section, the late Richard Roberts, walked me past the desk of a reporter blazing away on his Remington. The man was a sight. His nose hovered inches above his copy, which was on the desk to the left of his typewriter. He looked like two people sharing one body, or maybe conjoined twins, the myopic one pouring over the raw file, the other frantically trying to keep pace with the edit. “That’s Robert McFadden,” Dick Roberts told me, “best writer in the business.”
Chris Marrou - January 8, 2012 at 9:23 am
Great article, but Ben ruined my favorite journalism-movie quote featuring a reporter at the scene of a big story talking on a two-piece telephone: “Don’t bother with rewrite, sweetie, take it direct.” Apparently we could all use a good rewrite, even on deadline.